[648] If we are to trust Morillon's report to Granvelle, Egmont denied, to some one who charged him with it, having recommended to Philip to soften the edicts. (Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Nassau, Supplément, p. 374.) But Morillon was too much of a gossip to be the best authority; and, as this was understood to be one of the objects of the count's mission, it will be but justice to him to take the common opinion that he executed it.
[649] "Negavit accitos à se illos fuisse, ut docerent an permittere id posset, sed an sibi necessariò permittendum præscriberent." Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 185.
[650] "Tum Rex in eorum conspectu, humi positus ante Christi Domini simulacrum, 'Ego verò, inquit, Divinam Majestatem tuam oro, quæsoque, Rex omnium Deus, hanc ut mihi mentem perpetuam velis, ne illorum, qui te Dominum respuerint, uspiam esse me aut dici Dominum acquiescam.'" Ibid., ubi supra.
[651] "Il retourne en Flandre, l'homme le plus satisfait du monde." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 349.
[652] "En ce qui touche la religion, il déclare qu'il ne peut consentir à ce qu'il y soit fait quelque changement; qu'il aimerait mieux perdre cent mille vies, s'il les avait." Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 347.
[653] Ibid., ubi supra.—Strada, De Bello Belgico, tom. I. p. 187.
[654] Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 347.
[655] Vandervynckt, Troubles des Pays-Bas, tom. II. p. 92.
[656] Correspondance de Philippe II., tom. I. p. 364.
[657] "And everywhere great endeavors were used to deliver the imprisoned, as soon as it was known how they were privately made away in the prisons: for the inquisitors not daring any longer to carry them to a public execution, this new method of despatching them, which the king himself had ordered, was now put in practice, and it was commonly performed thus: They bound the condemned person neck and heels, then threw him into a tub of water, where he lay till he was quite suffocated." Brandt, Reformation in the Low Countries, vol. I. p. 155.